Hardcore History is notable not only for its immense audience (millions of people listen to it) but the length of its episodes. The most recent episode, part of a sequence about Imperial Japan in the 20th century, stretches over four hours.

The 54-year-old Carlin, who has been described as a "social libertarian" and always stresses that he is an amateur historian, talks with Nick Gillespie about what motivates him to go so deep on topics in a moment when we're constantly being told we all have short attention spans, whether he's optimistic or pessimistic about the present and especially the future, and why we haven't yet had a world-ending nuclear catastrophe.

Along the way, Carlin and Gillespie talk about how the media landscape has changed radically (and mostly for the better) over the past 30 years, the deep lesson we should all learn from the original Planet of the Apes movie, and whether, as Carlin puts it in his new book, "the idea of progress is not without bias."

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His podcasts are entertaining, and thought provoking. I personally am not a history buff, so can’t really vouch for his historical accuracy, but I haven’t found anything particularly off.

I’d suggest trying out his series, Kings of Kings, if you have any interest in finding out if you know more than he (or more importantly, whether he has an interesting perspective, and worth the free listen).

The Anglo-Zanzibar War was a military conflict fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on 27 August 1896. The conflict lasted between 38 and 45 minutes, marking it as the shortest recorded war in history.

I know not whether our cause be just, but can only trust that my service to our beloved Queen will be be remembered with favor by our forebears. While the struggle may seem to endure without end, wait, um, looks like that dustup is about finished. See you next week. Love, Archibald

Haha. I loved the History Channel before it became Pawn Stars/American Pickers Channel 24/7 365 days a fucking year. Who the fuck actually LIKES that shit? I’ll take Hitler and nazis anyday over that garbage. Besides I’m a WWII buff anyway so that don’t bother me.

I’ve listened to every Dan Carlin podcast that was available for free, probably 30 or more of 2-3 hours each. Almost all of them are great. He has a way of finding interesting and gory tidbits and providing context to them in the larger story. The WW1 series, in particular, was outstanding.

But I am no longer a Carlin fan. Earlier this year he got together with another history podcaster, Danielle Bolelli, who also has some great podcasts, to present a podcast discussing why fascism – Nazis – should be considered right wing. He dismissed the name National SOCIALIST as being a fake, like the Peoples’ Democratic Republics, etc. But, of course, if he had been honest he would have noted that Mussolini, inventor of fascism, had been a socialist and was merely modifying it to fit his needs, and the tenets of fascism are collectivist, i.e. leftist. Fascists were collectivists, or perhaps crony capitalists who had ‘chosen’ businesses the government favored, much like FDR’s NRA (National Recovery Administration), a clearly fascist bureau. On such a straightforward topic Carlin prostituted his ‘historical accuracy’ on the altar of political correctness, revealing his progressivism. Very sad, really.

Carlin and Bolelli also took their podcasts behind paywalls, so f those guys.

I am surprised Nick wasn’t aware enough to challenge Carlin. He missed an opportunity to out him as no libertarian.

If you really think collectivism = “left wing” than you will misunderstand most of history. There are plenty of examples in history of conservatives who loved statist solutions. Hell, the current US President is a “conservative” who loves farm subsidies, eminent domain, protectionist tariffs and massive deficit spending. Is Trump a leftist?

But Hitler and Mussolini were all about state control of the economy top down. Yes, they allowed some favored businesses to retain private ownership, but if the Reichstag said to stop building cars and start building tanks, you said “how many” or you would find yourself out of business.

Trump IS the false flag. He’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing, a Statist that understood the psychology of the freedom movement so well that he is able to hijack it and use it for Statist ends. Just like a Judo fighter redirects their opponent’s strength against them.